You archaically-minded fucksticks...

[Happy lil Elf]

DnD can be great fun, or it can suck horribly. The key is to have a DM who realizes that while he should make it somewhat challenging for you, because that can be great fun, his goal is not to kill you. His job is to make sure you have a good time. It's not a game of DM vs the players. Considering how much work it takes to be a good DM, it's a rather thankless job, which is one of the reasons I hate doing it. But hopefully you have other players who are also comfortable with DMing and are good at it becasue then they can return the favor.

The way we usually play is everyone in our campaign DMs and has a character. We all know the overall goal for the campaign and thus we are all able to work towards that with the various things we come up with for us to do. Whle DMing your characters is in basically NPC fight mode. You don't get to solve the puzzles, or do a whole lot of character development, but at least you can still contribute and help out if a fight comes up. Then next time another person DMs and you get to play your character to it's fullest while they go into NPC fight mode. I've heard people bitch about how bad of an idea that is but really it's worked out just fine with numerous campaigns at least three of which are now semi retired with chracters in their 30s.

I can't really tell you how to be a good DM for your players though, because it's going to depend entirely upon what your players like. Don't let them get out of control, but at the same time let them do what they want as much as possible. Also, don't be afraid of letting them play evil characters. Two of our highest campaigns are based around evil characters. Oddly enough while we've done some pretty evil crap, we've actually ended up doing a lot of good as well. Keep in mind evil can do good deeds, there just needs to be something in it for them personally most of the time.

For instance in one of our evil campaigns, using a couple of dragon hoards we had "confiscated", we bought every slave we could get our hands on, had them build us a city (and most importantly treated them relatively well while they did so) then said "Congradulations, you just built your new home. Communication and transportation can be provided for any family you'd like to contact or move to here with you." We lost about 15% of them to people decideing they didn't want to live there and whatnot but most of them decided to stay and the population flourished with all the families that came in in the following months. There are bonuses to living in a city where there are no taxes (hunting dragons pays a lot more in the long run, although it is a tad more dangerous...). Not only did we get a relatively pimped out city out of the deal but we got a very loyal group of citizes from which to recruit for armies as well.

In other words let your players do big things, but make the justify it and reason it out. Letting them actually change the world they play in is oftentimes as much if not more fun than just running around killing orcs and kobolds

[Dharkbayne]

Originally Posted by Neon Apocalypse

D&D is kinda fun. But you have to play with friends that aren't too serious or too little serious about it. It can be fun with the right bunch of people. Spee's dad shouldn't care at all. Just get it and hide it or something. Theres some messed up people in this world. I have no way of telling if you're one of them, but sometimes games can drive people crazy when you get obsessed with them. For you it shouldn't be a problem since you just want to play with people from school. Let me tell you a story of a possible columbine.

I had a friend, well i wouldn't consider him as someone i really know, but we became friends over the internet playing Desert Combat. We started a clan called SOAR which a few people from the previous clan we were both in joined because we decided we didn't like what the leader of that one was doing. Anyways I always thought he was a bit of an odd guy. He liked to make fun of people and show off a bit. But he was cool. Anyways he lived in Pennsylvania in some rural place. His family did lots of hunting so he had access to some weapons. DC is a sort of realistic FPS with modern day weapons. This friend of mine was a bit obsessed with it. He just loved shooting people in it while I was the clan's main pilot. He wasn't the most popular kid in school. Didn't have a girlfriend and he was in 10th grade. I'm not sure if he ever had a good girlfriend who loved him. Eventually the clan thing got boring and I got addicted to PS and i stopped playing DC. The clan was kinda getting boring since the person in charge of the server was always away and couldnt patch it frequently. So we kinda just split. This week I talked to another friend that was in our clan. He told me that my other friend, SFCOBRA was his name, was arrested. What happened was he was talking to a friend from school on AIM and he said he was going to come to school and shoot everyone then commit suicide. I'm not sure if he was drunk or something but he said it. Somehow the word got to someone and the police found out. He was arrested and all his computers discs and electronics were confiscated. He was sent to a mental rehab hospital/ juvenile hall thing. His life is pretty much over. Everyone thinks hes a psychopath. Im not sure if he's tried commiting suicide.

The thing is this kid seemed normal to me at first. FPS games can change people when they become obsessed. Its something you have to be careful of if you think you are weak minded or act without thinking. The kids who did the columbine shootings were addicted to doom and did lots of modding to it.

What I'm tring to say here is that games can change people. What you're dad said was true. There are people addicted to games that get obsessed and do crazy things.

I personally am not worried about myself because I would never intend or even think of killing someone. I could barely come to grips with shooting a deer. Unless i was going to die or something.

As for D&D you just gotta watch out for the obsessed people. I dunno what could happen but who knows. Someone could get obsessed with swords and go out slashing people up or something. There are some fucked up people out there my friend.

It's not DC that did that to him, it's being batshit crazy that did that to him.

[Infernus]

I agree... I play a multitude of FPS's and I'll they;ve done to me is tell me how to press 'x' (or the variant on whichever system) to shoot a "bullet" at somebody... the most a video agme will teach you is terms, only severly troubled people are actually edge into mass homicide by them...

[Spee]

Originally Posted by Infernus1080

I agree... I play a multitude of FPS's and I'll they;ve done to me is tell me how to press 'x' (or the variant on whichever system) to shoot a "bullet" at somebody... the most a video agme will teach you is terms, only severly troubled people are actually edge into mass homicide by them...

Thats kinda wrong. As a young boy, I learned shitloads about nukes from MGS.

[Neon Apocalypse]

i dunno dhark, im sure it could have done it to him, he was also really into DoD. He had an obsession with guns, and he was addicted to DC. It is possible.

[MrPaul]

It's from the first page, but I feel the need to quote this...

Originally Posted by -Hezzy-

I would think nearly everyone knows what the Karma Sutra is. I even asked a random toddler and they explained what it was to me

Dude... what were you asking a toddler about the karma sutra for eyy?

Spee - MGS taught you ABOUT nukes, but it didn't teach you how to make one, if anything surely it would put you off of ever wanting anything like that to happen, what with the stories of radiation that killed hundreds of thousands?

I reckon people are looking at the wrong place to blame for people becoming violent, it's not games, it's not movies, it's the people themselves. I'll bet they'll blame the 'net next, because you can find many sites telling you how to make explosives (although on a recent news show on the BBC, they showed how to make a potentially lethal terrorist bomb... wise ey? ). Hell, lets blame books ( Anarchists Cookbook par example )

I'm gonna stop there before I start talking about psychology...

[Infernus]

Originally Posted by Spee

Thats kinda wrong. As a young boy, I learned shitloads about nukes from MGS.

hmm... good point I shoulda phrased that better... but it was a saturday and thusly a "no thinking" day...

...and though you learned tons about nukes did you feel compelled to go out and build one and/or nuke something...

[Spee]

Originally Posted by Infernus1080

...and though you learned tons about nukes did you feel compelled to go out and build one and/or nuke something...

No, but man. If I could have built MGR, I would have, simply for cool factor.

[Infernus]

Originally Posted by Spee

No, but man. If I could have built MGR, I would have, simply for cool factor.

Well... me too I guess...

[Dharkbayne]

Originally Posted by Neon Apocalypse

i dunno dhark, im sure it could have done it to him, he was also really into DoD. He had an obsession with guns, and he was addicted to DC. It is possible.

Yes, he liked shooting people BEFORE that, I'll bet he was an avid hunter/wanted to be, or paintballed, went to shooting ranges alot, ect.

[SDM]

ect.

[1024]

etc.*

[SDM]

ekt.

[1024]

et cetera.

[Dharkbayne]

You guys suck.